people who are perfecting "losing life"

At the exponential conference last month I talked about the emotional roller coaster of church planting. When I first began preparing for the talk, the idea was to get OFF the emotional roller coaster. When I finally got to presenting this talk, the idea was to stay ON the coaster and enjoy the ride.

Life is emotional. The only way to get off is to stop doing anything significant, scary, or risk taking. When we get off, we are left standing on the sidelines, watching others while they experience the thrill of the ride.

We are emotional creatures, created in the image of God who I also believe is emotional.

If we are not feeling emotions I think there could be one of several things going on:

We are denying

We are avoiding - using stuff to manage our emotions (food is my favorite emotional elixir)

Everything's a competition. Today, we had our "taste" of small groups. Every small group brought their favorite snack and shared with the whole church. Of course, it soon became an "our snacks are better then your snacks" competition. One group took it over the top, brought a grill and started grilling up hot dogs outside.

It was a BLAST....I am so proud of my leaders who will do anything to help others find a place of connection.

If you have ever been the leader of a volunteer team, you have probably had moments when you said, "I just need more people." And then you wonder why is no one joining the team?

Time to make the ASK. Making a successful ask for people to join your team of volunteers begins in your head long before you form the words with your mouth. Start by changing your thinking from exclusive to inclusive.

ExclusiveThinking: Stuff we think that keeps us "in" and others "out"

Being on the team is a burden

A person cannot be on the team because....(saying "no" for someone before we even invite them in)

Being on the team is mostly about getting the job done.

How few people do we need to get the job done?

InclusiveThinking: Stuff we think that allows everyone to join the team

Being on the team adds value to someone's life

If a person cannot be on the team, they will tell me no (instead of us saying "no" for them before we even ask)

Being on the team is mostly about building relationships

How many people can we include?

Now go make the ASK. I am quite sure that when you do, you will make someone's day by inviting them onto the team.

Actually, God changes the world, but he often uses broken poeple to do it. I know, because I am one of them. And I am continunally amazed that God has invited me to play in his world-changing playground.